Over the weekend, country music star Morgan Wallen ignited quite a controversy when he bizarrely walked off the set of Saturday Night Live immediately after his appearance instead of taking part in the traditional Goodnight and Credits portion of the show. But he seems to be simply carrying on as if nothing happened.
At the conclusion of the show, the country music singer left the stage abruptly and immediately as the credits were still rolling while the rest of the crew exchanged pleasantries and congratulations on the stage. Wallen then posted a photo from the tarmac of the airport on his Instagram story with the caption “Get me to God’s country.”
The incident sparked outrage from SNL fans and even prompted a response from SNL star Kenan Thompson. The SNL star said he “definitely saw it” but wasn’t exactly sure what the deal was.
“I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that. I don’t know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way,” Thompson told Entertainment Weekly.
Thompson thought that Wallen might have even had to use the bathroom.
“You see somebody before you get a chance to say hi or say good job or anything like that, they just dipping,” Thompson said. “I thought maybe he had to go to the potty or something.”
The SNL made it clear that Wallen’s antics were definitely unusual.
“It’s definitely a spike in the norm,” Thompson says. “We’re so used to everybody just turning around and high-fiving us, everybody’s saying, ‘Good job, good job, good job.’ So when there’s a departure from that, it’s like, hmm, I wonder what that’s about?”
“I guess it was just different because it just felt so abrupt,” Thompson continued. “And it was already such a small grouping on the stage anyway. So it was just like, oh wow, that was pretty visible. You know what I’m saying? It was a pretty visible thing.”
Wallen himself has not addressed the issue, but one report suggests that the move was actually pre-planned and was not intended to be a slight at SNL.
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE – SEPTEMBER 22: Morgan Wallen performs onstage for night two of his One Night At A Time tour at Neyland Stadium on September 22, 2024 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for for Morgan Wallen’s One Night At A Time 2024)
“Sources in Wallen’s camp say there’s nothing to the conjecture that the singer was signaling tension, maintaining that he had a good time and no slight was intended with either his prominent exit or his Instagram post,” Variety reported.
“No slight was intended, and the buzz misreads the star just being off-the-cuff as usual,” the outlet’s report continued.
Regardless, it seems like Wallen is simply moving on with his life and career as usual, despite the controversy.
On Monday night, Wallen broke his silence on social media as he made his first public post since the controversy – but he didn’t actually address the incident. Instead, he simply posted a video on Instagram promoting his new song “Come Back As A Redneck.”
In the video, Wallen can be seen cleaning his rifle, shooting a target and riding a dirtbike through the woods with his new song playing in the background. The caption of the post read, “Maybe then you’ll understand.”
It’s not clear whether or not Wallen intends to publicly address the SNL controversy. Bt as of now, it seems like he’s planning to just move on as if nothing happened.
